Is that a birthday card, or are you serving papers?

The memo, from personnel chief Paul Scrivener to 10,000 staff, continued: “This is not just a phase the council are going through, it’s the law which means you will be liable for any comments or action you make or do that someone may find ageist and discriminatory.

And there’s the rub.

Not something that is ageist or discriminatory.

Just what someone may find ageist or discriminatory.

You’re at the mercy of any shrieking harpy or career jobsworth who thinks his or her ‘rights’ extend to private feelings.

Workers at South Gloucestershire Council are quaking in their boots, having been told – by someone who should know better – that habitual complainers and uptight harridans, the kind of people who see insult everywhere and take offence at everything, are, incredibly, in the right and have official backing to take legal action for any perceived slights. And the definition of “perceived slight” is entirely up to them.